Why Connect to the Cloud with Atmel SMART SAM W25?

Why Connect to the Cloud with Atmel SMART SAM W25?
by Eric Esteve on 12-15-2015 at 4:00 pm

Atmel SMART SAM W25 is in fact a module, Atmel names it “SmartConnect Module”. As far as I am concerned I like SmartConnect designation and I think it could be used to describe any IoT edge device. The device is “smart” as it includes a processing unit, in this case ARM Cortex M0 based SAMD21G, and “connect” remind the Internet part of… Read More


Low Power LTE for IoT: The Webinar from CEVA

Low Power LTE for IoT: The Webinar from CEVA
by Eric Esteve on 12-13-2015 at 12:00 am

Talking about “connected devices”, we specify any system from high-end smartphones to the simplest low-cost tag, as far as this system will be wirelessly connected. IoT are by definition connected systems, and represent a significant portion of connected devices. By 2020, ABI Research predicts that there will be more than 45… Read More


CEVA Royalty Revenues in 2015 Supports Future IoT Design Win

CEVA Royalty Revenues in 2015 Supports Future IoT Design Win
by Eric Esteve on 12-07-2015 at 7:00 am

DSP IP addressing modem for the mobile phone market is still the flagship product and CEVA enjoys design-win at major semiconductor account (one of them being vertical and also selling the smartphone), but the acquisition of Riviera Waves in 2014 has been a strong sign of diversification. CEVA’ port-folio includes signal processing… Read More


How to Secure IoT Edge Device from Multiple Attacks?

How to Secure IoT Edge Device from Multiple Attacks?
by Eric Esteve on 11-21-2015 at 7:00 am

In the 1990’s, designing for performance was the main challenge and the marketing message for Intel processors was limited to the core frequency. Then designers had to optimize power consumption to target mobile phones/smartphone and build power efficient SoC, low power but high performance devices. Now in 2015 the semi industry… Read More


IP-SoC Rebound in 2015 !

IP-SoC Rebound in 2015 !
by Eric Esteve on 11-12-2015 at 7:00 am

Going to IP-SoC every year since 2006, I have enjoyed the conference as it’s the only one 100% IP focused and a very good opportunity to network within this rather small ecosystem of IP vendors… but I must admit that, since 2012, the attendance tend to be lower than before. Because of the well-known “chicken & egg” theorem, low … Read More


Forget about ThunderBolt, USB Type C is here!

Forget about ThunderBolt, USB Type C is here!
by Eric Esteve on 11-09-2015 at 7:00 am

At the early days of Semiwiki (March 2011), I wrote about ThunderBolt, predicting low market adoption of the protocol, for various reasons. One of these reasons was the cost associated with ThunderBolt integration by the OEM. Even if the protocol (associating PCI Express and DisplayPort) was offering better data bandwidth than… Read More


Why Gemini 2.0 is tailored for tomorrow’ SoC designs?

Why Gemini 2.0 is tailored for tomorrow’ SoC designs?
by Eric Esteve on 11-04-2015 at 7:00 am

You probably have seen many times this graphic showing that the number of IP blocks has exploded, going from a few dozens in SoC designed in 65 nm to 120 if not more for last generation SoC targeting 16FF or 10FF. This graphic is very good at synthesizing the raw IP count, but it doesn’t tell you about another strong trend: more agents … Read More


ARM Keil Ecosystem Integrates Atmel SAM ESV7

ARM Keil Ecosystem Integrates Atmel SAM ESV7
by Eric Esteve on 10-23-2015 at 4:00 pm

Even the best System-on-Chip is useless without software, as well as the best designed S/W needs H/W to flourish. The “old” embedded world has exploded into many emergent markets like IoT, wearable, and automotive is no more restricted to motor control or airbags as innovative products, from entertainment to ADAS are being developed.… Read More


How LETI IP will speed-up GlobalFoundries 22FDX™ ASIC Development

How LETI IP will speed-up GlobalFoundries 22FDX™ ASIC Development
by Eric Esteve on 10-19-2015 at 7:00 am

GlobalFoundries has positioned FDSOI proposal -22FDX- to provide better performance and power dissipation than competitive FDSOI offers on 28nm node. The FDSOI licensing agreement between LETI and GlobalFoundries is only a couple of months old (July 2015), but the real work has started in Dresden as several engineers from … Read More


Is the IP market expected to decline by 2020?

Is the IP market expected to decline by 2020?
by Eric Esteve on 10-16-2015 at 7:00 am

To answer this question, I will share the results about Interface IP, more precisely the Top 5. The Top 5 protocols, USB, PCIe, Ethernet, DDRn and MIPI, are part of the interface IP market and each of them has been characterized by very strong growth rate. If you compute actual numbers for 2010 to 2014, it results to a Cumulated Annual… Read More